Why Efficient Communication Is The Key To Successful Project Management

Personal or professional, communication is the secret of every successful relationship. While you can argue over the truth of this statement, you can’t deny the fact that in the absence of a clear communication channel, your project’s chances of success are minimal.

According to the findings of the Project Management Institute (PMI) – those with effective communication skills get more than 70% of their projects completed on time and within budget as compared to only 40-50% projects for those with poor communication skills. The PMI also suggests that if you are a project manager, it is necessary that you use a dedicatedproject management softwareor tool to encourage effective communication with all the parties involved in a project. This includes teams, clients, stakeholders, and anyone else who is associated with the project in one way or the other.

In this article, we will take this discussion forward by exploring the various factors that prove why effective communication is the foundation of successful project management. We have also compiled a list of methods that you can employ to improve communication in your workplace.

Let’s get started.

Reasons why efficient communication matters in an organization

Improved productivity: Effective communication implies that employees have all the information they need to complete their jobs. It ensures that no important information is missed or misinterpreted during the whole project management process. With all the important details at hand, employees approach their tasks with better focus and get them completed without wasting any time. In this way, effective communication makes employees more productive around work.

Greater clarity: Confusing guidelines and unclear instructions are the biggest productivity killers. In project management, it is important that employees, managers, and clients have a clear idea about the roles and responsibilities. This is where effective communications prove most helpful. With good communication, everyone gets clarity about what they need to do and how they should do it. This way, everyone knows what is expected of them and everything runs smoothly from start to finish.

Increased participation: When you’re a project manager, you want everyone on your team to participate and perform as productively as possible. But that’s not possible unless you start communicating with your team members. With effective communication, you will be able to increase engagement among employees without any additional efforts. Just let everyone participate in the discussion and they will get more enthusiastic about their workplace.

Easier problem-solving: Managing a project involves all sorts of challenges. In order to face these challenges, effective communication is necessary. It helps teams to identify and resolve potential issues while they are still dormant, thereby keeping everyone on track and allowing them to complete every task or project as a team.

Tips to ensure better communication in project management

Encourage interaction outside the office: This is certainly one of the best ways to get people to communicate and work together without conflicts. Project managers often expect each member of their team to spend most of their time working in their offices and delivering results. But it’s not the ideal approach. In a team, employees should be able to understand each other’s value and align their interests for the best results. To make it happen, project managers need to encourage their employees to interact outside the office premises. Planning an impromptu office trip or organizing some fun team building activities is a great way for everyone to be together outside of work.

Ask for honest feedback: Communication is not just about getting projects delivered, but it also focuses on improving the overall performance and productivity of the team. Asking employees to share constructive feedback on each other’s performance is one way to achieve it. Encouraging team members to communicate their thoughts provides them with the opportunity to identify key areas of improvement in their work process. It shows them ways to be better at their job and bring the best outcome with minimum effort.

Use a collaboration app or tool: Finding an online collaboration software or app is always a great way to encourage better communication in a workplace. A project management software or team collaboration tool offers businesses the opportunity to personalize their communication with advanced features and functionalities. Discussion boards, chats, announcements, reporting, etc are some of the advanced features through which a collaboration app or tool simplifies workplace communication.

Applozic is a communication suite for enterprises to simplify their team communication. It has all the required features and unlike 3rd party software products, Applozic can be hosted on your own servers for more control and security of data.

Conclusion

If teams are a crucial part of an organization, communication is the process that helps them to facilitate and attain maximum efficiency. Put the above tips into practice to maintain effective communication and create opportunities for everyone to be heard in the workplace.

If you liked this article, don’t forget to share it with your coworkers and clients. Help them learn why communication is the key to successful project management and how they can improve it.

About the author:

Vartika Kashyap is the Marketing Manager at ProofHub and has been one of the LinkedIn Top Voices in 2017. Her articles are inspired by office situations and work-related events. She likes to write about productivity, team building, work culture, leadership, entrepreneurship among others and contributing to a better workplace is what makes her click.